


Wonder

by AssyPiff



Category: Broadchurch
Genre: F/M, Friends to Lovers, Longing, Post-Season/Series 03, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-22
Packaged: 2021-03-24 23:34:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30080043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AssyPiff/pseuds/AssyPiff
Summary: Set a few weeks after the end of Series 3, Ellie Miller still wonders what it would have been like to properly share a bed with Alec Hardy, not that she would admit that to anyone, even though Beth Latimer had asked. It was never going to happen, so why think about him in the sleepless hours?Beth had started wondering what it would be like to be with be with another man other than Mark. She also wonders whether Ellie and Alec know they are wondering what it would be like to be with each other.Inspired by the song Wonder by Shawn Mendes"I wonder what it would like to be loved by you?"
Relationships: Alec Hardy & Ellie Miller, Alec Hardy/Ellie Miller
Comments: 22
Kudos: 70





	1. Chapter 1

It was hard won this peace they had. A couple of weeks after the Trish Winterman's sexual assault case had been solved, Broadchurch had collectively let out the breath it had been holding until the sexual predators had been caught by Hardy and Miller.   
The weather was glorious, Ellie had met Beth down at the beach with their kids. Chloe was down at the water's edge supervising Lizzie and Fred, Tom had been persuaded to come along as long as he could play a game on Ellie's phone. He would have to get a part time job to earn the money to pay for a replacement for the one Ellie had not long ago smashed with a hammer. 

"You've done it again, El. Caught those bastards, " she lowered her voice so the kids couldn't hear her swear, " who did that to Trish and the other women " She squeezed her friend's hand.

Ellie gave her friend a sober smile in return, "Not just me." She thought of how her and Hardy had slipped back into working so well together, even after his absence, to solve the case.

" No, got to give Hardy his due, " Beth paused with a not-so subtle sideways glance at Ellie staring off into the distance at two figures walking towards them along the beach.

"El...?" She didn't quite know how to frame the question.

" Yeah? " Still not taking her eyes off the couple slowly advancing towards them.

"Do you ever? Do you ever think you'll...?" 

" Do I ever what Beth? " Ellie turned back, she could tell Beth was having difficulty in voicing her thoughts.

"I love Mark, I do, but I think our story will be over, even if he does sort himself out."

" Oh, love... " Ellie wasn't sure what Beth needed to hear. Mark and Beth's split had been a long time coming. 

"Thing is, I've been with him so long, I can't imagine being with anyone but him. I don't know what it would be like. Do you? Do you wonder what it would be like? " Beth knew Ellie had been totally focussed on her and her boys' recovery from all the grief that Joe had caused them. She had so far shown no sign of wanting to meet another man.

"I do, sometimes wonder, " Ellie shrugged, " but it's not going to happen is it? Who's going to want me? " Her tone was matter of fact, but still there was a wistfulness there. She turned her head back to the beach, where it was now clear who it was she had been watching.

Hardy and Daisy strolled towards them deep in conversation. 

"I'm glad Daisy decided to stay, it would have broken Hardy's heart if she had gone back to her mother. So good of Chloe to befriend her. " 

" So Hardy's staying here is he? " It had taken Beth her observations of Hardy in his dealings with Trish to understand why Ellie held him in such high regard. She had been too consumed in the maelstrom of losing Danny to notice much outside of that at the time.

"I dunno, I guess so. He hasn't told me he's going away again. But then why would he?" Ellie watched him steadily as he approached, holding a hand up to her eyes to shield herself from the sun.

" Because you're his friend?" Beth ventured.

"He didn't bloody well tell me til he'd packed his bags last time! Not a word for two years!" Although she shot daggers at him across the beach, the hurt was clear.

"I never believed that you and he...what that bitch of a barrister said at the trial. I knew you would never cheat."

"No, I wouldn't. And neither would he. His ex-wife had the monopoly on that. Nearly killed him, that and Sandbrook. " She shook her head, " all he did was be my friend. " She chuckled to herself, " We couldn't even share a bed without it being toe-curlingly awkward and argumentative. If the prosecution could have seen us, they wouldn't have accused us of an affair."

"Hold it! Wait! You and Hardy shared a bed? " Beth 's shock made her almost raise her voice to a shout .

"Shhh....I don't want the whole beach to hear!"

" God Ellie! What's he like? Underneath that suit? " They giggled as they had when they were girls discovering Jilly Cooper novels.

" He never took it off! " Ellie laughed again, hiding her discomfort that Beth had guessed she had wondered what Hardy was like out of his suit, had spent most of that night and many others since wondering how that night could have gone differently if Hardy had been well enough and less of a gentleman to have taken off his suit.

"But don't you wonder?"

By this time Hardy and Daisy had made it to the water's edge where Chloe, Lizzie and Fred were happily playing with shells.

"What's so funny?" Hardy had never seen the point in cheery greetings and he wasn't about to start now.

"Hello to you both, " Ellie as ever determined to supply the cheery greeting when Hardy would not. "I was just saying to Beth how much you sleep in your suit." She grinned innocently at him.

Hardy's eyes widened in response. "Why would you do that?" He looked around him as if this was classified information .

"You do Dad, especially when you're in the middle of a case." Daisy chuckled affectionately at him too.

Hardy rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably, " I do get caught up, I suppose, " he was not going to apologise for this though.

"Quite right. " Ellie made a show of looking him up and down, "You look nice today," Ellie had been admiring his form in the khaki casual trousers and navy shirt he was wearing. A part from his pyjamas and a woollen jumper, oh and his hospital gowns, she doesn't think she has ever seen him in anything else.

Daisy, becoming bored with this conversation, went over to join Chloe and the little ones.

"Come sit with us Hardy, " Ellie patted the blanket beside her, there was plenty of space for him.

"I wouldn't want to intrude," he said, suspicious that they had been talking about him.

" Not at all, " it was Beth who reassured him, Ellie seemed to have lost her ability to speak as he sat down close to her. His proximity to her was just far enough away that they didn't touch. But she could feel his heat all the same. 

He sat watching the kids at the water's edge, stretching his arms out behind him and his long legs in front, seemingly relaxed in their company. Ellie fidgeted next to him, quite unusually unable to think of anything to say. She eventually got up to stop Fred from throwing seaweed at an oblivious Tom.

"How are doing Hardy?" Beth asks him, following his gaze to where Ellie is laughing her head off at Fred, wearing the seaweed like a wig.

" I'm alright thanks Beth," he doesn't look at her keeping his gaze on Ellie.

"Ellie tells me you and Daisy are going to stay in Broadchurch. At least she hopes you are, she didn't seem quite sure." She looked at him for any sort of reaction.

" Aye. I persuaded Daisy to give this place a chance. I thought Miller knew that? " He had no idea why Beth looked at him strangely.

"Why do you do that? Call her Miller after all this time?" Beth laughed at their peculiarity.

He shrugged, "We just do. Don't even think about it." 

" Do you wonder what it would be like to call her Ellie? " 

"She doesn't like it. I did that when...well she told me not to do it again."

"But that was three years ago. " Beth could understand it then but not now.

Beth looked between them, a small smile unnoticed by both of them graced her face.  
Ellie looked back and held her gaze with the reclining Hardy, the wistful look in her eye was back, just briefly enough for Beth to recognize it before it was gone. Beth wondered if Hardy had seen it too.

After a while Chloe and Daisy extricated themselves from the little people. 

" Is it alright if we have a walk to the arcade? " Daisy asked her Dad who didn't seem as if he wanted to move from his position on the blanket.

" Aye. Be back for dinner though. " Hardy didn't seem as concerned as he would have been a couple of weeks ago before the attackers had been caught and the lads who'd been harassing Daisy been warned off.

"You too Chloe!" Beth shouted , "Back for dinner!"

The girls wandered off with Tom in tow, leaving Ellie to dry the feet of the squirming Lizzie and Fred, who had become a bit to hot and grizzly in the sun.

"I'd better be off," Hardy seemed reluctant to go.

" Where have you got to go? " Ellie's question was deliberately casual, even though she knew he would know it wasn't.

He sighed, hauling himself up from the blanket, dusting sand off of his trousers, " I've been summoned by Maggie. Since you did that article with her, she wants to do a companion piece on me. Thanks for that by the way. "

"I thought she'd forgotten all about that, we never did finish it. Got interrupted by Dad," she grimaced thinking about the old sod.

" She's going to run both of us side by side apparently. " Hardy scowled at the thought. 

"Maggie won't publish anything damning, you know that." Ellie had known Maggie for years and respected her integrity even though she had recently left The Broadchurch Echo and was chancing her arm as a Free Lance.

" I don't like journalists poking around in my private life. " Hardy's scowl had taken up permanent residence once again.

"What private life do you have?" Ellie didn't want to think about that cheeky date he'd not had a few weeks ago.

He looked at her a little longer than she expected, nodded to Beth and strolled off down the beach, hands firmly in his pockets, heading off towards Maggie and Jocelyn's clifftop house. 

Both Beth and Ellie watched him go. 

" So tell me about this bed sharing! Does he snore? " Beth was intrigued she had never heard this before.

Laying on the same bed as Hardy, being in such close proximity to him made Ellie wonder in the small hours of that sleepless night. Wonder all sorts of things. He was the first man she had shared a bed with in the last fourteen years or so, she didn't count that faceless man of a couple of weeks before, he hadn't hung around long enough. Hardy had laid there rigid in his efforts not to make her uncomfortable, making them both even more uncomfortable. She wondered what it would be like to see him soft and pliable from sleep. She found herself wondering what it would be like to fall asleep with him spooned up against her, drifting off to sleep in the protective circle of his arms. Perhaps she would never know, she sighed sadly to herself, perhaps she would never have that again with any other man. But back then she had fought an internal battle with herself not to roll over "accidentally" in her " sleep" to feel what it would be like to hold him. She didn't tell Beth any of this. She could barely process it herself, let alone confess it to her friend. These thoughts had occupied many a sleepless night and she wondered whether they showed.

Ellie shook her head, trying to dispel the images she couldn't seem to forget. "No, he doesn't snore. He's not asleep long enough." There was no point in thinking about something that would never happen.

Beth watched Ellie thoughtfully, seeing her changing emotions scud across her face like the clouds racing across a stormy Broadchurch sky. There was more to this than Ellie was willing to say or admit to. It got Beth to wondering too.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellie's not the only one to be wondering. Hardy's having his own thoughts. 
> 
> Hardy goes to see Maggie and Jocelyn and reveals more than he intended.

Walking along the beach with Daisy was just another one of those things Hardy made himself do for her. He still hated the sand, the way it insinuated itself into his clothes, his hair, on every surface in his house half way up a hill. He still had his fear of water even though his nightmares were fewer than they had been but he grudgingly had to admit that strolling along the beach with her in the sunshine was reasonably pleasant. He'd spent years pining for an easy relationship with her or indeed any relationship with her, it was the least he could do. He'd do and had done so much more.

Now that the pressure had been taken off her at school and she had made a firm friend in Chloe Latimer, Daisy felt more like chatting to her Dad without all that playing on her mind. She'd meant it when she told him she was proud of him. She would never quite forgive herself for believing the worst of him, effectively cutting him out of her life when he didn't deserve it. What she wanted now was for him to finally find some happiness.

"You know Dad, now that the summer holidays are nearly here we can spend more time down here," Daisy's enthusiasm was almost infectious.

"Aye. If I'm not working," he regretted saying it as soon as he said it, why couldn't he do anything spontaneously? Why couldn't he be like Miller in that regard? Miller was all about spontaneity. Her affection was easy and freely given, even after all that had happened to her. She was one of those people who, in the language of that self-help shite, didn't sweat the small stuff. He realised he admired her for it, after it had annoyed the living daylights out of him. 

"You won't be working all the time Dad," she looked him up and down, "You could do with some work on your tan," she smiled sweetly at him , if the Scottish had a pallor, he certainly has it. Pale and freckly. At least he didn't look sick any more.

It wasn't long before Hardy spotted Miller lounging on a beach blanket in deep conversation with Beth Latimer. Their kids were playing around them, Hardy had wondered over the years what it would have been like to have more children. He would have loved it but to Tess it was not a choice she was willing to take. There was no doubt how much she loved Daisy but she was not a natural with children. His gaze softened looking between Miller and the kids. Her naturally motherly instincts couldn't be separated from any of her interactions with people, whether that was nurturing and caring about them, as she had with Trish Winterman, or scolding them as she frequently did with him. Either way you knew when Ellie Miller cared about you. He wondered what it would be like to be cared for by her but not in a motherly way. 

The conversation flowed around him once they finally reached the Latimer/Miller party. Daisy wandered off to chat to Chloe with Miller giving him no option but to sit with them on the blanket. This kind of intimacy with her outside of work panicked him, not because as she suspected, he didn't know how to behave in social situations, rather he knew exactly how he wanted to behave around her but he always held himself back. As he half sat, half lay there next to her he wondered what it would be like to be free to take her hand in his, to brush her unruly hair out of her eyes. His stillness was studied, a portrait of physical restraint , Miller in contrast was restless, edgy. He wondered if it was him causing that. He couldn't let himself hope. After a few minutes she got up and went to rescue Fred, his seaweed headdress as ridiculous as it was cute. Hardy was relieved she'd moved away from him, he could feel the heat of her, this same heat was travelling through his body and up his neck to blush under his beard. Besides he could see her better from where she's moved to.

Hardy was relieved when the group began to break up. He was happy Daisy had made a friend in Chloe Latimer, he felt her settle into life in Broadchurch the last couple of weeks. He would have had to leave her soon anyway, summoned to see Maggie as he had been. After an out-of-work encounter with Miller like this, Hardy always needed to have some time on his own to regroup. He wondered whether it would always be this way, that he would always be so dazzled by her he would need to find shade for himself until he could see normally again.

Making his way up to Jocelyn's house at the top of the cliffs, Hardy felt some of the tension he had when in Miller's company leave him to be replaced by his usual wariness when speaking to journalists, even though it was Maggie who had pretty much always been fair with him.

"Hello Alec, " Jocelyn had watched him walk up to the house, long strides eating up the path until he's arrived to find her sitting on a lounger enjoying the weather under the shade of a parasol. 

"Jocelyn, " he nodded in her direction.

"Would you like one of these?" She was filling two tall glasses with ice and tap water.

" Yeah, I wouldn't mind, thanks. " It was a warm day and he was grateful for her offer. He'd always respected her, even liked her. He certainly trusted her.

"Maggie will be out in a minute, " she obviously knew why he was there. " You're not looking forward to this are you? " she chuckled at the way his face scrunched up.

" Nah. Don't like talking about myself. Not very interesting. "

Jocelyn indicated the seat next to her, so Hardy sat obediently. 

"I beg to differ, " she smiled at him, "everyone is interesting. We all have our stories if we can be bothered to listen."

This has a ring of truth which he couldn't help but acknowledge, "that's basically our job to find out the true story." 

"And mine," Maggie had been listening at the door and chose that moment to join them.

"Maggie," Hardy didn't really mind using first names, just Miller's. He had spoken the absolute truth when he said he didn't want to create an intimacy with her, especially with Joe stood right there, that time, in their kitchen.

"Shall we get started?" Maggie sat in a chair at the outside table next to the loungers. 

Jocelyn smiled benignly at them both as she got up to go into the house, " Work to do, " she said.

"Have you spoken to Ellie about her interview?" 

" She just said she didn't get to finish because of her Dad. " The grimace he pulled clearly showed what he thought of David Barrett.

Maggie nodded knowingly, " I asked her for a piece on why she became a copper. Her experience as a woman in the force, how hard it was for her to make DS. I want the town to see how hard she has had to work and what a great officer she is. "

"You 'll get no argument from me there. Best I've worked with", Hardy commented without hesitation.

" I wanted to ask you the same thing. Well not about being a woman in the force obviously. How you started, some of your experiences, the work you had to put in to become a DI. A prequel to the last piece, " they both knew she was talking about the article he gave her and Olly about Sandbrook, " and an update. Why you decided to came back. "

Once he got going he found he didn't mind talking about his early life as a Police Constable in Glasgow. He spoke entertainingly with his dry humour to the fore Maggie laughed and wondered why he showed this side of himself so rarely. He spoke about his move to South Mercia and his studying to become a detective, his intelligence and humanity shining through. He spoke about his move to Broadchurch and the difference between policing this essentially rural seaside town and the city policing of a metropolitan areas like South Mercia.

Maggie had more than enough for her article, but she couldn't resist asking, " so how are you settling into Broadchurch now you've come back? Why did you come back? "

Hardy had rehearsed the answer to this many times, mainly because Miller kept asking him and still wasn't convinced by the same old answer he trotted out about giving Daisy a second chance. 

"Good yeah. I've a bigger house this time. Big enough for me and my daughter. She wants to finish school here before she goes to university." He can't help but smile whenever he spoke of Daisy.

"And you? What do you get from being back? " Maggie always held her killer question to last.

" To me Broadchurch has meant family. I came here on holiday with my parents when I was a lad, it's a close knit place which I found claustrophobic at first but now...well. "  
This was as close as he'd come so far to bring honest about how he felt about the place.  
"Truth is, after I went away, I missed the place. Never expected to." He missed Miller every day but Maggie would have had to have put electrodes on his nether regions for him to have admitted it to her.

" Right, " but Maggie knew. "It would have been strange for you not to have missed someone you'd worked so closely with," she said quietly.

" Aye, " Hardy mused seeming not to have noticed who Maggie was alluding to. He looked up startled at his own admission, bloody hell she was good! 

Just at that moment Jocelyn came out of the house with a pot of tea. 

"Maggie! You promised me you wouldn't do this!" Jocelyn tutted at her partner knowing perfectly well what she was up to.

" I just meant that you said that Ellie is the best detective you've ever worked with. It would seem odd that you wouldn't have missed working with her. " Maggie tried for innocence but didn't pull it off.

Jocelyn sat down next to a startled Hardy, " You said something very wise to me once, " she said, " don't forget to follow your own advice. " She turned to throw a half warning look at Maggie, "and that's all I'm going to say on the matter." 

" Alright, alrght, " Maggie held her hands up in mock surrender, " but don't you wonder Hardy...? "

He looked at them both with such raw want they were both taken aback. As briefly as it had flashed across his face the longing was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your comments and kudos...all greatly appreciated 😊


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ellie wonders a great deal about Hardy's hands and what he could do with them.
> 
> Hardy has his interview with Maggie. 
> 
> Maggie corners them both about their alleged affair much to Jocelyn's disapproval.

Some nights it wasn't so bad. Some nights by the time she got home, sorted out dinner, the kids, tidied the house, Ellie was so knackered she could barely make it into the shower before collapsing into a heavy, dreamless sleep which left her almost as tired as when she went to bed. 

Those nights weren't so bad as the nights when she couldn't get to sleep whatever she tried. She swallowed down the chamomile tea with a scrunched up face, which Hardy drank in the evening saying that caffeine kept him up at night, put on her lavender scented room plug in, tried to empty her mind. But it would only take one small thing, like the chamomile tea, to remind her of Hardy and that would be it. Down she would go, down the rabbit hole of thinking about Hardy, Alec. It was only when she was on her own at night, with her boys safely tucked up in bed, would she allow herself to think of Alec. It was only then would she allow herself think of him as Alec and not Hardy. 

At all other times of the day, well mostly, he was very definitely Hardy. Her boss, her partner, her mentor. The man who'd taught her to harden herself to the horrors they came across on a regular basis, how to be professional but still care to be a better detective. At work Hardy could be bad tempered, intolerant of mistakes, (but then why why wouldn't he? ), relentless. He took on the personal responsibility of catching the perpetrators and wouldn't rest or let her rest until they were caught. Ellie would freely admit to having learnt so much from him. He had effortlessly mentored her maybe because he saw something in her?

To all of the above she would freely admit, had done so in fact in her interview with Maggie, but it was in the dead of night where her thoughts would wander. But she would not let them escape her heart to roam free in the world only to be trampled by reality. These nightly musings were purely on a personal level. Her thoughts of Alec were so personal she could feel the blush travel from her cheeks down her neck and flush her chest.

Sometimes she thought of his long fingers and how he would effortlessly twiddle his glasses between them when they were sat in his office discussing theories. Or how they would brush against hers when she handed him a mug of tea. He really did have beautiful hands. She remembered the few times he had touched her, cursing herself for brushing him off when he'd tried in his clumsy way to comfort her. Although they could stand to be physically closer since he had returned, even the few inches he kept between them felt like a bloody great chasm of her own making. Sometimes she realised she held her breath when he was near her or fixated on his hands when she was supposed to be concentrating. Her night time dreams had a way of leaking into the daytime without her permission and it was happening more and more.

If she'd had a bit to drink before she went to bed, her thoughts ran to more erotic areas. She wondered what else those elegant fingers of his could do. She'd taken to running her own hands over herself, teasing herself imaging it was his fingertips softly running up her arms, bringing out goosebumps all over her heated skin. Some nights she fancied she could actually feel him, which caused her great embarrassment the next day. Looking him in the eye was difficult these days. He'd look at her as if he knew what she'd been doing while thinking about him. He'd look at her so wistfully when he thought she wasn't watching, she'd be tempted to go to him and pick up his hand and place it her hers to just hold it. To know what it felt like to entwine their fingers, to run her thumb across his palm.

During the day she told herself to pull herself together. She should go on Tinder and find herself some bloke to shag. But she knew it would be as unsatisfying as that bloke at Claire's. Loneliness was one thing, but she knew the difference between shagging and making love. With Alec it would most certainly be the latter, she would not be able to keep her emotions out of it. That was why she knew she had to get past this, whatever it was, infatuation? She knew it wasn't that. She had been infatuated with her old boss. It had been the closeness with which they worked, the drinks at the pub after work, but it was all on her side and when he'd left it didn't take her long to remember to miss him.

When Hardy had left she missed him with a fierce ache She had to bury every day. She tried to be happy for him that he was making a go of it with Tess and Daisy. But her heart screamed that she had missed her chance with him. She knew deep within her that her feelings for him went way beyond infatuation. She was too old to try to fill her loneliness with the temporary proximity of a random bloke. She was strong enough not accept second best, even though she knew her best was out of her reach.

As she was helping Beth to pack away the blanket and picnic stuff off the beach, Ellie 's mobile rang.

"Hello?" Ellie wondered what Maggie would want.

" Hi Ellie, I wondered if you could spare me half an hour? We didn't quite finish your interview and now I've done Hardy's thought it would be a good time to tie them both together. "

"Oh well, I'll have to check with Beth if she'll take Fred for me." She looked enquiringly over to Beth who was wrangling Lizzie into her shoes. Beth smiled and nodded and started work on Fred, equally as uncooperative as her little girl.

"I'll walk up now," Ellie could have done without the slog up to Jocelyn's house but at least the interview would be finally out of the way.

" Come and collect Fred when you're ready. I'll text Chloe they can all come back to mine for their dinner. "

"Thanks Beth, hopefully it won't take that long." Ellie kissed Fred on top of his head and waved at Lizzie before picking up her shoes and making her way off the beach .

Maggie had ducked inside the house to make the call to Ellie, knowing that if Ellie came straight away Hardy would still be there when she arrived. She wanted to see how they were around each other. She had been sensing a change between them since Hardy's return, they had spoken about each other in careful terms for their interviews and she suspected they would be equally as careful around each other without work to hide behind. This wariness had somehow replaced the combustible heat they had before, interesting, Maggie observed.

Hardy sat chatting amicably with Jocelyn, who'd installed herself in the lounger she'd left a while before. There was something about Jocelyn that made it easy for him to relax. He felt as if she was on his side when in his experience not many people in his life had been. The other person who he'd felt this about came trudging into the terrace just as he'd had those thoughts.

"Bloody hell, it's a long way up here! I don't know how you cope!" Ellie grimaced once she saw she was not just addressing Maggie and Jocelyn.

"Would you like a drink Ellie?" Jocelyn , ever the good host, poured a glass of iced water out and offered it to her.

"Thank you," Ellie guzzled it down in a few mouthfulls, " I needed that! " She looked between Maggie and Jocelyn, carefully avoiding Hardy's gaze. "So what's this about?" 

Maggie smiled her most charming smile, " I wanted to get a comment by each of you on each other, " by way of explanation.

"Haven't we already done that?" Hardy asked a bit perplexed, knowing that he'd already commented on his professional partnership with the woman who was sinking lower into the chair she had taken only moments ago.

"You have, Petal, I wanted to ask you both what you think about each other in a non-professional capacity." Maggie's best innocent smile was still in place.

Ellie and Hardy both shot her unbelieving looks, shocked that she would ask them this question outright and with them both here at the same time. It was like they had both been pushed into their own first circle of hell. Time stood still in their panic about what to say when they hadn't solidified their own thoughts on the other. 

"I told you about this Maggie," it didn't take Jocelyn being a top prosecution barrister to recognize the waves of discomfort flowing out of Ellie and Alec.

" It's for the article, " Maggie tried.

"Are you sure?" Jocelyn loved Maggie she really did but disapproved of her way of going about things sometimes.

Hardy crawled to the surface of reality marginally before Ellie did.

"We get on. What else is there to say?" He didn't for one minute think this would be enough to satisfy Maggie. " We don't analyse our relationship, we don't need to. " Hardy was nothing if not firm on this point.

Ellie had gathered her wits at long last, " I agree with Hardy. Why do we need to know how we work? We work together pretty successfully, we get on, end of. " 

"Is it though?" Maggie mused, despite the daggers Jocelyn was staring at her .

"Is it what?" Ellie wished she hadn't fallen into Maggie's trap the second after she had. Hardy shook his head at her in disbelief. Have I taught you nothing he was saying to her with his eyes.

"Is that all there is between you? Why do you think the defence in Joe Miller's trial decided you were having an affair?"

" It's a diversionary tactic. Crude and difficult to deny once the thought is put in the jury's mind." Jocelyn always disapproved of such nonsense and was still disappointed that her former protege Sharon Bishop was not above such a tawdry move.

"I have no idea. No idea where anyone got that from," Ellie shrugged, " it's not like we were ever. .. " She waved her hand about vaguely, " we never felt like that about each other. "

Hardy shifted about, distinctly uncomfortable but trying to keep still, "No..." He didn't sound convincing even to himself.

Ellie ploughed on, " And neither of us would have cheated it's not in our natures to do that. " On this she was emphatic and to which Hardy readily agreed. "I don't know what you want us to say", Ellie got up to go," but I have to go and get Fred. "

Hardy got up to go too, he wasn't enjoying being on the other side of an interrogation, however nicely Maggie was doing it. After brief goodbyes, Hardy and Ellie walked away together their shoulder bumping occasionally, unconsciously drifting towards each other, both preoccupied with the questions Maggie raised but neither able to share their thoughts with the other.

Jocelyn and Maggie watched them go, "Do you think...?" Maggie whispered.

" Oh yes...they are definitely wondering, " Jocelyn replied with a gentle smile.


End file.
